BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings
HARTFORD, CT - The 2019-20 Hartford Wolf Pack hockey season is rapidly approaching. In fact, the season starts in just over a month, and the parent New York Rangers have made some important moves to get the team ready to play as they've made plenty of announcements over the past couple of days.
The Wolf Pack's three-game slate of action starts on Wednesday, September 25th, at the Danbury Ice Arena in a game against the Springfield Thunderbirds, the top farm of Florida Panthers. The game will start at 7 pm. Danbury is the hometown of the Wolf Pack's long-time Assistant GM, Pat Boller. The Danbury Ice Arena will house three teams this coming season. Former Ranger enforcer, Colton Orr, is a part-owner of the brand-new Federal Hockey League team, the Danbury Hat Tricks, as well as, the NA3HL junior Danbury Colonials and NWHL Connecticut Whale.
Part of the proceeds of the game will go to the Danbury Colonials youth hockey development program.
There will also be a pair of 1 pm back-to-back exhibition tilts against the Pack's in-state and division rival, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers on Friday, September 25th at the Koeppel Community Center at Trinity College and then on Saturday, the 26th at the Webster Bank Arena. Admission on Friday night will be given as a donation to the Ryan Gordon Foundation Wolf Pack Scholarship Fund.
Both teams will conclude and their preseason activity will be followed by their parent teams, the Rangers and Islanders battling it out later that night at 7 pm in an NHL exhibition tilt.
PLAYER, COACHING AND NEW STAFF MOVEMENT
David Cunniff was announced by The Rangers as the Wolf Pack's second assistant coach. It’s the first time that the team had two assistant coaches since Keith McCambridge was an assistant to Ken Gernander in the former captain's last season as head coach. In addition, to the Cunniff signing, the Rangers also announced several major additions to both the Wolf Pack staff and the Rangers' organizational scouting department for both amateurs and professionals.
Cunniff has plenty of experience as an Assistant Coach over the last five years he's been with the Iowa Wild, the Minnesota Wild’s top farm team. He also spent 12 years in the San Jose organization and four with the poorly-attended, Cleveland Barons. He spent eight years with the Worcester Sharks but didn’t migrate with the team when they relocated the franchise to San Jose when the Pacific Division and San Jose Barracuda were created, instead, Cunniff went to Albany for a year before going to Iowa.
As a player, Cunniff had five years of minor pro hockey experience including two years with Albany and was once as a member of the band, The Doors, inspired team name, the Jacksonville Lizard Kings (ECHL).
Cunniff’s late father, John Cunniff, played for the very first Whaler teams, the New England Whalers (1972-1974) back when the team played at the Boston Arena (nee Matthews Arena) and the original Boston Garden. He was a Whalers head coach (1981-1983), a scout, and he was a coach in Albany with the River Rats/Devils (1996-2001). He was the franchise’s all-time winningest coach compiling a 187-179-39 record. During his playing days, Cunniff played for the first (and only), AHL team in Florida, the Jacksonville Barons in 1973-1974.
His father passed away in 2002 (May 9) after a courageous battle against throat cancer.
The David Cunniff hiring was first reported by Rick Carpinello of The Athletic.
Rangers President, John Davidson, promised additions to the hockey ops side of the team and they were named as well.
Tanner Glass and Tuomo Ruutu, as reported here earlier this summer, were hired by Rangers with their official titles being Assistant Director of Player Development.
In their roles, Glass and Ruutu will work with Jed Ortmeyer, the Director of Player Development, to assist in preparing Rangers prospects, both on and off the ice. Glass will primarily work with Rangers prospects in North America and will be based out of Seattle, WA, while Ruutu will primarily work with Rangers prospects in Europe and be based out of Finland.
Glass, the Craik, Saskatchewan native, played three seasons for the Rangers (2014–2017) and skated in 134 career games. He registered six goals and nine assists for 15 points, along with 181 penalty minutes during the 2017 Stanley Cup Playoffs, including the game-winning goal in Game 1 of the Rangers’ first-round series against the Montreal Canadiens on Apr. 12, 2017. He played 74 games across two seasons with the Wolf Pack tallying 8 goals, and 12 assists and 109 PM.
Prior to beginning his professional career, Glass played four seasons of collegiate hockey at Dartmouth College (2003-07). He served as Dartmouth’s captain during the 2006-07 season. In addition, Glass played 186 games over six seasons in the AHL with 20 goals and 50 points. He had 101 points in 107 games in junior in the BCHL.
Glass concluded his playing career last year with GHC Bordeaux (France-FREL) which is located in the southwest part of the country.
Ruutu skated in 735 career NHL games over a 12-season career (2003-2016) with Chicago, Carolina, and New Jersey, where he compiled a record consisting of 148 goals, 198 assists (346 points), along with 596 penalty minutes. Ruutu was selected by Chicago in the first round, ninth overall, of the 2001 NHL Entry Draft. In addition to his NHL career, Ruutu played professional hockey in Finland and Switzerland.
The Vantaa, Finland native represented his country in several international tournaments throughout his career. Ruutu played with Finland in 12 major international tournaments during his career, including the Winter Olympics twice, the World Cup of Hockey once, the IIHF World Championship five times, the IIHF World Junior Championship three times, and the IIHF U18 World Championship once. He helped Finland earn 10 medals in those 12 tournaments, including two bronze medals at the Olympics (2010 and 2014) and gold medals at the 2011 IIHF World Championship and the 2000 IIHF U18 World Championship.
Ruutu also helped Finland finish as the runner-up at the 2004 World Cup of Hockey. In addition, he served as an Assistant Coach for Finland’s gold medal-winning team at the 2019 IIHF World Junior Championship. His two brothers are involved in pro hockey. Mikko is the Director of European Scouting for Ottawa while Jarrko is a development coach for Columbus (NHL)/Cleveland (AHL).
Chris Morehouse has been named the team’s Director of North American Scouting, and Marshall Davidson and Derek Ginnell have been named Amateur Scouts. Steve Konowalchuk will transition from the team’s amateur scouting staff to the team’s professional scouting staff and they also named Chris Hoeler as the Wolf Pack’s Video Coach.
Morehouse joins the Rangers organization after spending the previous seven seasons in the Columbus Blue Jackets organization (2012-2019). He spent the past three seasons as the Blue Jackets’ Assistant Director of Amateur Scouting last year. Morehouse joined Columbus as an Amateur Scout in 2012, and he served as both an Amateur Scout and a Professional Scout over four seasons before being named the team’s Assistant Director of Amateur Scouting on July 6, 2016.
Prior to beginning his front office career, the Saint John, New Brunswick native played two seasons at St. Thomas University (AUAA) (2011-13) while earning his degree. Morehouse also played parts of two seasons in professional hockey with the Alaska Aces, Cincinnati Cyclones and the Greenville Road Warriors all in the ECHL, and Tulsa Oilers then in the defunct Central Hockey League.
He also played three seasons of junior hockey with the Moncton Wildcats (QMJHL) from 2005-2008. Morehouse served as Moncton’s captain in 2007-08, and he was also named the QMJHL Humanitarian of the Year and the Canadian Hockey League Humanitarian of the Year during the season.
Marshall Davidson joins the Rangers organization after spending the previous six seasons in the Columbus Blue Jackets organization as an Amateur Scout (2013-2019). He also served five seasons in the St. Louis Blues organization as an Amateur Scout (2008-2013).
Prior to serving as a scout in the NHL for over a decade, the Calgary, Alberta native coached several teams in Bantam and Midget AAA programs in Western Canada for over 25 years. Davidson coached with Tom Renney, a Rangers’ former Head Coach and presently is the President and CEO of Hockey Canada, with the Columbia Valley Rockies (KIJHL) for several years. During his tenure with the Rockies, Davidson helped guide the team to back-to-back Keystone Cup Championships.
And yes, Marshall is Rangers' President John's brother.
Ginnell joins the Rangers organization after spending the last five seasons as an Amateur Scout with the Columbus Blue Jackets (2014-2019). Prior to becoming a scout, he played with the Medicine Hat Cubs of the Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL), and he served as the team's captain. Ginnell also played in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL), Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL), and North West Junior Hockey League (NWJHL).
Konowalchuk served one season as an Amateur Scout with the Rangers in 2018-19. In his role as an Amateur Scout, he was primarily responsible for scouting players in the Western Hockey League (WHL). Konowalchuk joined the Rangers organization after serving as an Assistant Coach with the Anaheim Ducks during the 2017-18 season.
He was the Head Coach of the Seattle Thunderbirds in the WHL for six seasons (2011-2017), and he helped Seattle win the WHL Championship and advanced to the Memorial Cup in 2016-17. Konowalchuk began his coaching career as an Assistant Coach with the Colorado Avalanche for two seasons (2009-2011).
Konowalchuk skated in 790 career NHL games over parts of 14 seasons (1991-2006) with the Washington Capitals and Colorado Avalanche, registering 171 goals and 225 assists for 396 points. A native of Salt Lake City, Utah, he became the first player born in Utah to play in the NHL. Konowalchuk represented the United States in several international tournaments during his playing career, and he helped Team USA win the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.
Hoeler joins the Rangers organization after spending last season as the Director of Hockey Operations for the Chicago Steel of the United States Hockey League (USHL). Prior to working with the Steel, he worked one season with Harvard University’s women’s hockey team as the team’s Video & Analytics Coordinator. Hoeler has also worked with the Danbury Titans in the Federal Hockey League (FHL) in his career.
The Wolf Pack have added a ninth defenseman for the Pack roster inking Jeff Taylor to a one-year AHL deal. Taylor, a Union College (ECACHL) grad played the last two years splitting time with Wilkes Barre/Scranton and Wheeling (ECHL) and is a lefthanded shot.
Ex-Pack defenseman, and assistant captain last year, Rob O’Gara signed a one-year AHL deal with the San Antonio Rampage he missed the final third of the regular season with a back injury (back spasms) and joins ex-Pack Josh Wesley who signed with the Rampage last week.
(Portions of a Rangers Press release were used in the formation of this story)
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